박경리 『토지』에 나타난 동학(東學) - 소멸하지 않는 민족 에너지의 복원

Abstract

This thesis aims to research the 'Donghak(東學)' as a main element of the narrative and the theme in Park Kyong Ni's novel, <Toji(土地 The Land)>. The external main narrative of <Toji(土地)> is the destruction and restoration of Champan Choi's family, which started when Kim Whan, the illegitimate son between Kim Gae Ju, one of the leaders of Donghak, and Mrs. Yoon, the young widow of Champan Choi's family, and Mrs. Yoon's daughter-in-law ran away. However, the internal main narrative of <Toji(土地)> is the failure of Donghak revolution in 1894, suppression of the Donghak believers, Japan's occupancy of Chosun, and the everlasting resistance of the Donghak parties. The Donghak, which generated from the repulse of Chosun's feudal contradiction, leaded nation-wide revolution but failed. However, a collective power which had started from a society's organizational contradiction could not easily distinct without a significant change in society. In a psychoanalytical point of view, this kind of revolutionary power follows functional principles of unconsciousness; repression cannot extinct the revolutionary power. Even it was repressed right after gaining rapid popularity, the Donghak spirit survived in Chosun society like a shadow. "Toji" gives special meanings to the Donghak remnants that had survived until Japanese Occupying Period like a shadow, and uses their movement as an important narrative focus in the latter.